BYU basketball: Big run lifts Cougars to 82-64 win over Santa Clara

BYU's Tyler Haws, shown here in the Cougars' game against Virginia Tech in December, scored 24 points to led BYU to a conference win over Santa Clara on Saturday. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — One minute, it looked like Santa Clara might make its home game against BYU on Saturday a close contest.

The next minute, those hopes faded.

The Cougars used an 18-0 run over a seven-minute span in the middle of the second half to secure an 82-64 victory over the Broncos. Six different BYU players scored during the run, led by six points from Tyler Haws.

Haws paced the Cougar offense, scoring 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field. He added five rebounds and three steals.

Santa Clara overcame a 41-32 halftime deficit, outscoring the Cougars 12-4 in the first four minutes of the second half to narrow the gap to one point. With 13:37 remaining, a Kevin Foster free throw tied the game at 50-50.

But BYU (14-4, 4-0 West Coast Conference) took over the game from there, holding Santa Clara without a field goal for 7:56, until a Marc Trasolini layup with 6:33 remaining ended the Broncos' skid.

Brock Zylstra scored 13 points in the first half for BYU, including hitting all three of his 3-point attempts. Zylstra finished as the Cougars' second-leading scorer with 15 points and BYU hit 6-of-12 3-pointers.

Anson Winder came off the bench for the Cougars and added 10 points, four rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot.

Santa Clara (12-6, 1-3 WCC) was led by Kevin Foster, who scored 22 points and had three assists. Trasolini had a double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds.